What’s in it for me? Benefits from Open Sourcing Code

While the Ice code is GPLed, I feel that ZeroC is not completely an open-source project, for example, the version control system is private, discussions on where Ice is going are held privately. We don't have a good sense of where Ice is going in the future.

BTW, I am a full-time committer to the Subversion project, like how its run and its relationship with CollabNet. So when I look at the ZeroC system, that's what I'm comparing it to.

I would like to see the processes around Ice become more open and visible to people who love Ice and want to see it succeed.

I'm suggesting that ZeroC management take a look at this Google talk by several developers on the Subversion project on the benefits from open-sourcing your code. Clearly, ZeroC's code is open-source, but this talk goes into the range of open-sourceness and the benefits from it as a company increases its software development process: